Office of the General Counsel: Recent Legal Developments

Supreme Court Rules in Stanford University v. Roche

On June 6, 2011, The Supreme Court issued its opinion in this matter. The syllabus appears here.

On November 1, 2010 the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the Stanford University v. Roche Molecular et al. case. This case is a patent infringement lawsuit brought against Roche involving three Stanford patents for monitoring the effectiveness of HIV treatments that were developed with federal funding through the National Institutes of Health. In the course of the litigation it was discovered that one of the Stanford researchers signed a "Visitor Confidentiality Agreement" (VCA) at a company that was later acquired by Roche. The VCA purported to assign all of the Stanford researcher's patent rights in anything developed "as a consequence" of the time he spent at the company. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that this assignment was effective to transfer the Stanford researcher's rights to Roche resulting in the dismissal of the case. The issue on which the Supreme Court granted review is whether the Federal Circuit's ruling is in violation of the Bayh-Dole Act, which regulates the ownership and transfer of patent rights in technology resulting from federal funding. The Office of the Solicitor General of the United States filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Stanford's position as did over 40 major research universities and several university associations such as the Association of American Universities, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of Public Land Grant Universities, Council on Government Relations and Association of University Technology Managers. The Supreme Court issued a decision for this case on June 6, 2011.

Supreme Court Upholds Solomon Amendment
Click Here to access the Supreme Court's opinion (4/2006)
Click here to access the Third Circuit's opinion
Click here to access the Statement from Stanford Law School

Stanford announces that students will be charged an Internet reconnection fee for DMCA complaints beginning September 1, 2007 (5/2007)

Click here for policy.

Stanford Hospitals announce reorganization of insurance company, SUMIT
Click here for the text of the announcement

Career Development Center Computer System Improperly Accessed; Stanford Providing Notice
On May 11, 2005, the Career Development Center Computer system was improperly accessed from outside of the Stanford network. The system contained records of the Center from 1995 through the present. Stanford has no knowledge that any specific records were actually acquired, but in an abundance of caution Stanford is providing written notice of this event to clients and recruiters whose records contained Social Security or credit card numbers. For more information, please review the FAQ's posted here
http://www.pulsecheckcpr.com/

Antitrust Guidelines
Click here to access the updated Antitrust Guidelines for Stanford Faculty and Staff. (12/2011)

Research in Post 9/11 America
Recently SLAC Counsel Rachel Claus and University Counsel Lauren Schoenthaler spoke at the Public Meeting of the Committee on Research, which considered the impact of Post 9/11 Legislation on research at Stanford and other universities.
Click here for Rachel Claus' presentation.
Click here for Lauren Schoenthaler's presentation. (6/2004)

Stanford network user sued for copyright violations
On March 22, 2004, various recording studios filed a John Doe complaint against a user of the Stanford network. The lawsuit alleges that the unnamed defendant illegally downloaded and/or shared 11 songs and seeks statutory damages, which could be up to $150,000 per violation.
Click here for text of the lawsuit. (3/2004)

Peer to Peer File Sharing
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December that the Recording Industry Association of America ("RIAA") could not use provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to issue certain subpoenas allegedly aimed at illegal file sharing (RIAA v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc.). Some questions whether this ruling would reduce the number of lawsuits filed by the RIAA against alleged illegal file sharers. That question was answered on February 17, 2004 when the RIAA filed lawsuits naming 531 new alleged illegal file sharers. This is in addition to the 532 people sued for illegal file sharing in January. (2/2004)

Controlling the Assault on of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003
A new law going into effect of January 1, 2004 imposes some very specific requirements for all commercial electronic email messages, and has some very substantial penalties for failure to comply.
Click here to read an introductory memo regarding the act.
Click here to read the text of the act. (1/2004)

Responsibility for Contractor Compliance with Labor Laws (S.B. 179)
A new law going into effect on January 1, 2004 could result in liability to Stanford for the actions of its contractors unless certain language is contained in contracts that fall within the scope of the law.
Click here to read an introductory memo regarding the law.
Click here to read the text of the law. (1/2004)

New California Privacy Law Goes Into Effect July 1, 2003.
Civil Code section 1789.82 provides new notification requirements for the breach of unencrypted personal information. Click here to read an overview of the statute.

The Supreme Court Issues Rulings in U. Michigan Affirmative Action Cases!
Read the decisions:
Gratz v. Bollinger
Grutter v. Bollinger
To review the briefs, news items, and other links of interest on this topic, please review our Affirmative Action section. (6/2003)

New Financial Security Act in Effect!
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires that Stanford University "develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security plan" to ensure the safeguarding of confidential financial information. The University has gone beyond the requirements of the Act and has implemented a comprehensive policy to protect confidential financial information received by the University including credit card numbers, bank account information and tax information provided in financial aid applications. For more information, please view the University's Confidential Financial Security Plan. (5/2003)

Surrogate Decision Making Legislation Goes Into Effect January 2003
Section 24178 of the California Health and Safety Code addresses surrogate decision-making in most research situations. Click here to read an overview of the statute and the statute itself. (01/2003)

For a Recent Compendium of Bioterrorism Laws Affecting Select Agents, Click here. (1/2003)

Bioterrorism Legislative Update
On December 10, 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture issued an Interim Final Rule to implement the provisions of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The rule is located at: http://www.cdc.gov/od/sap/docs/42cfr73.pdf. The Department of Environmental Health & Safety and the Office of the General Counsel are reviewing the interim final rule to determine its impact on the University. (12/2002).

Click here to read an overview of the USA Patriot Act and The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 as they apply to research involving biological agents and toxins. (11/2002)

SEVIS Goes Into Effect In January 2003
Click here for Bechtel International Center's overview of this new legislation affecting international students and scholars. (11/2002)

HIPAA Goes Into Effect April 2003
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. A major component of HIPAA addresses the privacy of individuals' health information by establishing a nation-wide federal standard concerning the privacy of health information and how it can be used and disclosed. For more information on HIPAA and its application to Stanford and the Hospitals, please review the following sources. HIPAA Brief Summary, HIPAA's Privacy Rule: Research and the IRB, HIPAA's Privacy Rule: Compliance Issues for Stanford University with Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and http://hippa.stanford.edu } (11/2002)